Sudan orders stoppage of South Sudan oil exports

CALL TO ARMS:The order comes just months after an oil-sharing deal was struck between the two countries and was accompanied by a call to ready for ‘holy war’

Reuters, KHARTOUM

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered a stoppage of all South Sudan’s oil exports from yesterday, accusing his neighbor of backing rebels on his territory and bringing the foes back to the brink of confrontation after months of relative peace.

Al-Bashir urged youths to join the army and prepare for “holy war.”

He did not name the enemy, but the head of Sudan’s paramilitary forces said his men were ready to confront Khartoum’s longtime opponent South Sudan.

The order to shut pipelines carrying oil from landlocked South Sudan through Sudan to a port on the Red Sea — the South’s only route to market — came just three months after the countries ended a bitter dispute over crude.

“Tomorrow you... will order the oil companies to close the pipeline,” Bashir told Sudanese Minister of Oil Awad al-Jaz, standing behind him during an agitated televised speech outside Khartoum.

Sudan and South Sudan — which split into two countries in 2011 after decades of war fueled by oil and ethnicity — had agreed in March to restart the crude flow following a 16-month shutdown triggered by an argument over transit fees and territory.

Crude had only just started to move through the pipelines last month, with the first cargoes sold two weeks ago for shipment from Port Sudan.

HIGH PRICE

It can be very costly to close the pipelines, which can become blocked if the waxy oil stops halfway. The Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms dominating the sector have been facing rising operating costs due to the shutdown since January last year, sources say.

South Sudan would also have to shut down its entire oil production because it has no storage facilities.

“Sudan will not allow revenues from oil exports from South Sudan to be used to buy arms for rebels and mercenaries,” al-Bashir said in the televised speech.

A confirmed oil stoppage would dash hopes of an economic lifeline to both underdeveloped countries. The last shutdown ravaged both their economies as oil was the main source of state revenues and the dollars needed to pay for food imports.

South Sudan had started to pump 200,000 barrels per day in April. Its output was about 300,000 barrels per day before the shutdown.

Waving his trademark stick, a dancing al-Bashir urged youths to join the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces.

“I want you all to go there,” he told a cheering crowd.

Abdallah al-Jabili, head of Sudan’s Popular Defence Force, a paramilitary unit open to volunteers, told Sudanese news agency SUNA that his men were ready to “confront any attempt by South Sudan to shake up the country’s stability.”

CHALLENGES

Al-Bashir, in power since 1989, has been facing small street protests over high inflation and also dissent from inside his ruling circles and the army.

Analysts say many officers are unhappy that the army has been unable to stop the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, an alliance of rebel groups, from launching a major attack on central Sudan in April.

The insurgents, who say they want to end the dominance of Khartoum elites, briefly seized a commercial hub in the central North Kordofan State, moving the front closer to Khartoum — which they attacked in a lightning thrust in 2008.

In another embarrassment for Khartoum, a week ago the Sudanese Revolutionary Front attacked a convoy carrying Sudan’s chief of staff just outside a town in South Kordofan State that had been declared “liberated” of rebels by the Sudanese army.